Several cultures around the world have proscriptions and rules when it comes to the consumption of meat and meat products. Dietary laws in Judaism and Islam forbid the consumption of pork; Hindus refuse to eat beef; Jains and devout Seventh-Day Adventists refuse to eat any sort of animal-based foods at all.

Oddly enough, some of these dietary laws have a practical aspect. Ham and pork for example can cause trichinosis, a type of parasitic infection, if it is not cooked thoroughly (you can also get it from wild game such as bear meat and even venison).

Eating beef in America has been a tradition since the Spanish colonists invented modern cattle ranching 500 years ago – and even further back than that if you consider the role of that close bovine relative, the buffalo and its role in the diet and lifestyle of Indians living on the Great Plains. Beef is not normally associated with serious diseases if raised and prepared properly. In the old days, when beef was raised by your local farmer or rancher and butchered, packaged and sold locally, it was rarely a problem. Of course, it cost a lot more to eat beef in those days, but most families were still able to enjoy it once or twice a month.

Then came the industrial meat packing industry. Infections and deaths from tainted meat is nothing new – most U.S. casualties during the Spanish-American War were due to tainted meat sold to the Army by the Armour Meat Company (some real patriotism there, I tell you), and the industry in general was exposed by Upton Sinclair in his 1906 novel, The Jungle. The novel had such an impact that it led to the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which forced the industry to clean up its act. This law was amended sixty-one years later with the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967,which required the USDA to inspect all livestock to be slaughtered for human consumption.

For a long time, you didn't hear a lot about e-coli. Then, starting in the 1990s, after years of budget cuts and deregulation that gave big corporations a free hand to do what they liked, it seemed that e-coli from tainted beef was in the news every month. One of the most recent victims was a 22-year-old former dancer from Minnesota. Stephanie Smith contracted e-coli in 2007 after eating a tainted hamburger. After a nine-week coma, she awoke to find herself paralyzed.

The hamburger it turned out had been processed and sold by agribusiness giant Cargill. Last week, it was announced that the corporation had reached a settlement with Ms. Smith's lawyers. While Cargill "accepts responsibility" (what a concept!), it's likely that, in keeping with the corporate mentality, they consider Ms. Smith's plight simply part of the cost of doing business.

Would stronger rules and regulations have prevented this, and similar tragedies? Possibly. A lot of people are justifiably angry at government today, but for the wrong reasons. I see most of government as being guilty of sins of omission; the people we vote for and hire to look out for our interests are sleeping on the job. They spend a lot of time, money and resources going after ordinary little folks like Farmer Allgyer (see my recent post on When Worlds Collide), but seem all-too-willing to look the other way when huge corporate agricultural firms behave recklessly.

Looks like we're going to have to save ourselves, folks. Getting regionally-raised beef at the local farmer's market costs more, but in terms of taste, quality and safety, there's no comparison. –And yes I know, even local meat is still frequently processed through the big slaughterhouses and meat packing plants that are supposedly watched over by the USDA.  It’s not a full solution, but it’s a step in the right direction.

It pays to know where your food is coming from.